Boots street art, Sydney

Acid Midget reader Ben Isley submitted this photo on Facebook of a Boots sketch he found in the backstreets of Chippendale.

I haven't seen much of Boots's work on the street, but, ironically, I have in the feeds of fellow street art photographers on Instagram.

I've been using Instagram all year to share daily updates with you guys. It's also been a way to network with street artists and photographers. One such instance was a visit to Takie's studio in Sydney earlier this week.

I'll have a post on that in the coming days bb.

Fukt stencil: White collar puppets

Fukt is one of Sydney's most prolific stencil artists. In his work he layers satirical subjects like bums and war heroes in rich detail. This "White Collar Puppet" was in Chippendale in Sydney's inner west.

Here, Fukt has stencilled a wind-up worker whose cogs have stopped turning. Does this make you want to leave your corporate job and become a free-thinker?

I want to be someone who makes a difference, who reaches people with art. Someone who isn't afraid to put paints on buildings owned by people who are part of the 1 per cent.

People who believe that democracy is about reaching consensus, rather than "cleansing the earth of unemployed people".

I want to be someone who lives life with expression.

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■ Sydney street art
■ McDonald's fat stencil
■ Best we forget
■ Iwo Jima McDonald's sign

Julian Assange stencil

Julian Assange is my hero. Not just because he has white hair, which is totally rad, but because he's been to Sweden.

This stencil is by Blue Chip and was found in Chippendale, Sydney. Thanks to Konsumterra for, once again, alerting me to Blue Chip's work.

Visit the Acid Midget Facebook page for more Instagram photos.

The Acid Midget Manifesto

Acid Midget does not want your manual labour in the form of 'capital'. Acid Midget does not want you to stand naked at a mountain summit 1000m above sea level and howl at the moon. Acid Midget does not want you to download copyright media without a high speed connection. Acid Midget does not want you to purchase ideologies. Acid Midget does not want you to get a Brazilian wax out back of a crack house. Acid Midget does not want you to call John Lennon 'amazing' unless you live with hunger on a weekly basis. Acid Midget does want you to pay buskers in subway tunnels before learning to play the guitar. Acid Midget does not want you to lament any genocide without counting the number of abductions, rapes and murders of Aborigines since Australia's European settlement. Acid Midget does not want you to say "the revolution will not be televised" when you voted for the sitting government. Acid Midget does not want you to accept 'official statements' as words real people actually say. Acid Midget does not want you to say "it could be worse" to forget you're as unhappy as everybody else. Acid Midget does not want you to ignore ideas which can't be monetised. Acid Midget does not want you to expect legal or political institutions to believe you are a beautiful, enlightened person. Acid Midget does not want you to notice people's skin colour. Acid Midget does not want you to say "following rules and laws is the key to happiness". Acid Midget does not want you to believe the summer of 1969 ended.

 
(Chairman Meow: Chippendale stencil wall, Sydney)

CHIPPENDALE: Killer Slug dog mural

(Kensington St, Chippendale, Sydney)

These photos were submitted by bag, an Acid Midget reader who found this incredible Slug piece near a squat hole.

He also said it was destroyed with grey paint :( :( :( :( :( :(

There are three dogs in this piece. They are losing their shit to a soundtrack of maggots and meth.

Slug keeps getting better, doesn't he? He's so good that, apparently, he started working on his own 'mockumentary' called Exit Through the Crab Shop.

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Slug Graffiti Dog

Fukt: Iwo Jima McDonald's stencil

 

(Grafton St, Chippendale, Sydney)

The parallels between US World War II triumphs and US capitalist achievements are strong, street artist Fukt has indicated in this stencil.

It towers over the legal Grafton St wall like a flat statue, paying homage to the brave soldiers who decimated the Japanese Imperial Army at the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945.

Look at the passion in this soldier's limbs, willing the post to the summit.

Note the black and white face getting a good look at his balls.

Fukt is stating something else. Perhaps these men fought so brands like McDonald's could inseminate suburbs, subways and shopping centres around the world.

And perhaps this iconic symbol was a prelude to what the US now stands for - cheezburgers, a high obesity rate and Oprah.

 (Source)

This is Joe Rosenthal's original photograph atop Mount Suribachi. The Wikipedia page on the Battle of Iwo Jima is a great piece of historical writing.

It was written by a first year Bachelor of Arts student with an acne problem who received a high distinction for describing the battle with incredible bias toward the US using data manipulation and fact generalisations.

That's fukt.

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Chippendale Wall Gets Sexy

SYDNEY: Hipster poster advertisements **UPDATED**

(Devonshire St, Surry Hills, Sydney)

There is a poster plague propagating in Sydney and it's beginning to shit me. These posters depict shirtless hipsters with confused facial expressions.

The only other 'message' they send are phone numbers and email addresses below the images.

Traditional advertising asks consumers/cattle to do things, to try things, to believe they are 'worthless' unless they do something they otherwise wouldn't (buy a new fucking car you piece of shit).

But these posters employ brandless marketing to hold your attention through 'cognitive jamming'.

Has brandless marketing reached a new low?

Who knows/gives a $2 toss. All I know is that this sexxi hipster made me want to find out more. Maybe I 'bought into' the brand too easily since escaping the beef factory.

(Acid Midget is a street art blog made with an iPhone)

Omar, channelling the Acid Midget, sent these texts to the number listed on the poster.

He expected a swift response asking him to either visit a website selling herpes cream, or to pose another meta-narrative to him.

There was no response.

(Abercrombie and Meagher Sts, Chippendale, Sydney)

I was hurt. The lack of reply spurred me on to find another poster.

If I found another one, I thought, an answer would appear.

But all I found in a different part of Sydney was another hipster whore with a vandalised head.

Maybe the street art movement has peaked. Maybe the street art 'brand' has rebelled all it can. It has become accepted into the socio-political narrative after fighting for more than 30 years.

Perhaps the creative lefties who I call brothers and sisters have already moved to other methods of questioning social failings and I just haven't caught up.

They became criminal defence lawyers.

**UPDATE**

Acid Midget reader Mattae Cooper published these posters on our Facebook fanpage. These were defaced by Catface.

SYDNEY: Charlie Chaplin stencil

(Moorgate Lane, Chippendale, Sydney)

Lately I've been feeling a little like Charlie 'melanchol' Chaplin. Being trapped in the rat race is a fast way to get a long face.

Maybe Chaplin held a mirror to society in the way Shakespeare described. Maybe he's showing us how empty we look.

Or perhaps Chaplin was a product of his surroundings. Perhaps seeing us 'this way' made him sad.

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Chippendale wall gets sexy

Chippendale wall gets sexy **UPDATED**

(Grafton St, Chippendale, Sydney)

I was expecting a few more artists to get up in Chippendale after my previous posts.

However, the legal Grafton Street wall only had a couple of new pieces since then.

The Audrey I posted previously was by Blue Chip, but this one to the left I'm not sure.

The head is a little elongated, lips are too fat, nostrils are too far down.

Then that lo-fi 1970s porn star on the right - her snatch 'censored' by a toy tiger - is very eye-catching.

Eye.

Eye of the Tiger?

She is swathed in yellow, black and purple. These are the colours of lustful embrace, as deep moonlight filters through the bedroom blinds and lights her limbs.

Uhn yeah.

UPDATE:

Found this photo on SMC3's website. Check the painting on the easel:

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:


















Stencil wall in Chippendale has heaps of character

Chippendale stencils part II














Audrey Hepburn stencil by Blue Chip

STENCILS: Chippendale part II

 (All photos: Grafton Street, Chippendale, Sydney)

So apparently this is a self-portrait of Che (yeah, as in "Che Guevara"), one of the people who lives behind the infamous Grafton St wall.

The wall of his house is a legal haven for stencillers. Really dig his pro bono efforts. Can't stop reading about all the buzz at #cheasincheguevara.

I've been learning how to stencil. Figured a street art blogger should know the craft. Another few weeks of Google searches and I'll be bombing this wall.

So far I've done a bunch of self-portraits. In these, I'm scantily dressed and posing in provocative ways, which I then accentuate by painting while scantily dressed and posing in provocative ways. I usually stand on a trestle and BEND FORWARD so onlookers get a good look at my tush.

Psychedelic tiger. Good name for a club. Someone should call the guys over at Good God.

Burp.

Mr Skel, if you're reading this, why do animals inspire you?

 Really enjoying these Charlie Chaplin stencils. Might torrent some of his movies and relive the magic.

This one is from Houl.

Writing a haiku about a tiger resting in shade. Watch this space.

I've seen a few of these around. The gushing sexual overtones (minus the blue doodle) are weird. Never pictured Charlie Chaplin in that way.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

Stencil wall in Chippendale, Sydney

Stencil wall in Chippendale, Sydney has heaps of character

(All photos: Grafton Street, Chippendale, Sydney)

I recently heard about a sweet wall in Sydney from a friend who walked past and 'gushed' over the stencils on it.

I wanted to find out more, so I asked about it on the Acid Midget Facebook page.

Apparently the wall is in Chippendale and was recently repainted.

I went there. It was sunny while I snapped photos, getting a little tan, a little sweaty.

This guy Che walked past as I wiped my forehead.

So dude, you like stencils?
Hell ja, I replied.
It's a pretty cool wall. Oh, I'm Che by the way. As in 'Che Guevara'. I live here.
Sweet, I said. So, tell me...

Che said locals came around regularly to stencil but, because the wall got "a bit messy" with age, he repainted it.

If you look closely, bits of the old wall are visible through the new paint.

Thinking I should move in next door to Che. We'd have block parties every week with our street art BFFs. We'd walk the streets in blotched skinny jeans covering our bony asses and paint the town rainbow while downing bottles of freedom.

Hell ja.

Nice red scooter, but I still don't get why people ride them in Sydney. This is a car city. It's an orge of fumes, rage and mute mouths contorting like angry arsholes.

In the meantime why not 'vote green'? The above stencil appears to comment on the frustrating Federal election Australia just had. Coincidentally, Aussies did send more votes to the Greens. Now, more bike lanes please Bobby Brown.

Soldier: Sir, scaling wall now. Over.
Commander: Good work. Have you spotted any yet?
S: No sir. I've got night vision goggles on and I can't see them.
C: You effing earshole! You can't see because you're using night vision during the day!
S: Sorry sir. OK, I've got day vision goggles on now.
C: You corksucker! There's no such thing as day vision! Who hired you?
S: You did, sir.
C: Ahh forget it. See any of those uckfing street artists?
S: There are too many to count, sir. It's Chippendale. If you gave me a dollar for...
C: Shut up you mutt. Just get down there and complete the mission.
S: Yes sir. Over.

When sitting down to make a stencil that's a cross between a butterfly and a scorpion (Scorpfly? Butscor? Butter-n-scones?) how would you make it?

Draw it out by hand? Source the creatures and work from life? Google search/Photoshop/magnetic lasso tool?

All of the above.

This stencil reminds me of the 911 Falling Man. Sad.

Charles Spencer Chaplin was born in London, England in 1989 and died in Vevey, Switzerland in 1977.

Street artists use scale to surprise passers-by with either sheer enormity or, in this case, a stencil smaller than a brick.

In this stencil Flash Gordon is about to fall from a building in 1930s New York. He clings on for life.

If he falls off will he:

A) Land on the pavement and become a stinking pile of meat?

or

B) Be saved by Spiderman/Batman/Wolverine(man)/Mickey Mouse(man)/King Kong/Donkey Kong/Obama/Lady Gaga/All of the above?

There's always someone watching you, taking photos, stockpiling information.

You're never alone.

You could be walking directly into the frame of an Acid Midget photo. You could be a 55-year-old lady with a packet of potato chips, hurrying to calm your munchies with that mmm mmm salty goodness.

Audrey Hepburn stencil





Moorgate Ln, Chippendale

This piece is around the corner from the legal wall on Grafton St. I've also spotted it in Newtown.

The likeness to Hep A is pretty accurate, don't you think?

Update: Thanks to Konsumterra for letting me know this is a Blue Chip piece.